Posted on October 3, 2006 in Design-Showcases, with 0 comments.

This is the first installment of a (hopefully) regular feature here where I showcase good designs I’ve found over the past week. This first set of sites features a couple skinny sites, some fresh takes on a couple overused graphical elements (diagonal stripes and the sunburst effect), a nice wooden background, and some interesting colors.

Boogie Phil

It’s hard to recreate the kind of feeling boogie woogie piano creates in a medium like the web, but Boogie Phil’s site does just that. The header graphic is simple (I love the font) and the orange color ties in perfectly with the nice reddish orange underneath, and ultimately with the black footer.

*Bottom Line: * Great colors, simple intuitive interface, props for translating into another language, and good music. Take a second to listen to some of the music clips if you go to, they’re very well worth it.

Cottonblend

I love silhouettes, and Cottonblend has a beautifully simple and attractive one for the header. The rabbit reminds me of DIK and the company’s name is well integrated. Although the diagonal stripe thing is a bit overused lately, I think on this site it’s used excellently to lend some texture and originality. Another interesting note: the site features no main navigational bar. You dont miss it though, as theres enough info and the navigational links are emebedded perfectly where apporpriate.

*Bottom Line: * Good header, nice use of diagonal stripes, simple and elegant layout, and an original take on navigation without the standard nav-bar.

Twentyone Degrees

The first thing to catch my eye at this site was it’s original color scheme. The yellow, brown and gray work to convey a sense of calm and professionalism. This site also uses diagonal stripes on the left hand side, but again it’s minimal and works to enhance the site rather than take over. The content only takes up about 1/4 of the site’s area in stark contrast to this recent surge in content-stuffed sites. This really draws the user in to read every word, even for an attention-whore like me.

Bottom Line: Great, original colors, minialistic layout, subtle use of diagonal stripes adds texture and depth, and small content area to highlight what’s written.

The Skinny

And skinny it is. First off I simply love the lime green text on the very subtle dark brown wood background. Wood backgrounds have a bad rap on the web, but this works great. The colors tie in to the header photo, and the small content area gives the user a more intimate feel. The only thing I have a problem with is that it takes a bit of scrolling to get through the latest entries.

*Bottom Line: * Great use of contrast in colors, nice use of a woody background, good typography and elegant overall design.

No comments yet

Comments Have Been Closed For This Entry